How Agile Are We, Really?
Often I speak with IT project measurement folks about the permeation of agile into their project estimation processes. While the Agile Manifesto recently celebrated its 15th birthday, it’s just been the last several years that I’ve seen agile gain substantial momentum in becoming the official method many companies shepherd their projects. Or has it…?
The graphic above shows that the use of agile over waterfall has yielded desirable results in terms of reaching business goals of delivering on time, within budget and with complete functionality. Yet I still hear IT project measurement people voice concerns about fully adopting agile for their projects.
My observations, from talking to many people trying to estimate agile projects, are from a purely estimating perspective. Before agile emerged, many development shops were building their projects via waterfall, ERP, RUP and other methods, all of which provided respective value. Upon agile’s debut, it was but a whisper, among a few, as the next leading development methodology. Over the years skeptical minds were slowly changed and adoption increased. Today more organizations are using agile to develop their projects, but I have found a surprising number of estimators telling me in a hushed tone – they aren’t really developing in agile, despite the proclamation from on high. They are using more a combination of agile and other development methods, yielding an agile hybrid, sometimes sheepishly referred to as “wagile” or “agilefall”.